Stanford played a nearly perfect second half Saturday afternoon at Washington State, but it wasn’t enough to make up for its slow start in the first in a 77-73 loss to the Cougars.
Washington State (13-5, 3-3 Pac-10), led by Klay Thompson’s 27 points, jumped out to a 46-26 lead going into the locker room and held on with 7-of-8 free-throw shooting from Reggie Moore in the game’s final minute. The Cardinal (8-9, 2-3 Pac-10) got within two points twice in the last minute, but Moore responded with two made free throws each time, never giving Stanford a shot to tie the game.
The loss moved Stanford to 0-6 on the road this season.
“On the road, you have to play defense and you’ve got to take care of the ball,” said senior Landry Fields to the San Jose Mercury News. “Each game that we’ve lost, we showed a lack of defense and a lack of taking care of the ball.”
“I think it’s [a lack of] togetherness as well as communication,” said sophomore Jeremy Green. “We show it at home. We show sparks of it on the road.”
Fields and Green carried the offensive load once again for the Cardinal, with Green scoring 24 points on 9-of-22 shooting. Fields had 18 points and 10 rebounds but on only 6-of-17 shooting, while sophomore center Jack Trotter and senior point guard Drew Shiller had 12 and 10 points, respectively. Trotter also finished with eight rebounds.
The box score essentially tells the story. The two teams were very close in most of the significant categories, except for one: field-goal percentage. The Cardinal’s atrocious first half shooting the ball (26 percent) proved to be the difference, while the Cougars were steady throughout the game with 51 percent shooting.
Still, Stanford’s second half comeback was backed by 6-of-12 shooting from three-point range, while the Cougars were 0-for-7 in the same category for the second half.
The Cardinal systematically lowered the deficit throughout the half, cutting down Washington State’s lead to single digits with less than ten minutes to go. The Cougars also played complacently with their lead<\p>–<\p>trying to hold on to it instead of increasing it<\p>–<\p>which may have helped the Cardinal back into the game. Stanford was pretty much on pace for a road comeback of epic proportions, but it simply was not meant to be in the end.
“I give my kids credit,” said Head Coach Johnny Dawkins. “They fought. They tried to make a great comeback<\p>.<\p>.<\p>.<\p>We didn’t have enough time and [Washington State] executed at the end.”
Stanford will now return to the friendly confines of Maples Pavilion, where it is 7-2 this season. This week’s games will be very important for the Cardinal, which is only a game and a half back from first place in the Pac-10 standings, but happens to be tied for last place in the conference. There is currently a complete logjam in the conference, which is experiencing one of its worst years in decades<\p>–<\p>the top record is 4-2 (held by Arizona State) while the worst is 2-3 (held by each Oregon State, Oregon, UCLA and Stanford).
In any case, this week’s games will be huge for a Cardinal team that always seems to save its best for home. The matchups against the Beavers and Ducks are both very winnable games and a weekend sweep would put Stanford above .500 in both overall and league play.